Dear Parents and caregivers,
I
n our year 4 class we have been learning about cyber safety in our Digital Technology subject. Your child is being exposed to various forms of ICT every day (at school and at home) and it is important for them to learn how to be safe, responsible and ethical while online. This is just a quick post to encourage your active involvement in this educational process at home and give you some strategies to implement at home to keep your child safe online.
Rules and Guidelines for ICT Use
Rules and guidelines are set in place to protect children from harm. Your child has rules at school surrounding how they play, learn and use technology, and as a parent, it is your right to enforce your own
rules and guidelines about the use of ICT at home. These can include simple
ideas, such as where ICT is used in the home. Is your child allowed to use
computers in their bedroom? For the best protection, supervise your child
while they are online. Another idea involves how
often your child is using computers and other devices. If your child spends
too much time online, this can begin to negatively impact other aspects of
their lives, including their education.
Identity
Teaching your child how to keep their identity and personal information
safe and secure online is very important. A person’s password and username is personal
and is part of their identity and should not be given to others. We have
discussed as a class the possible consequences of sharing passwords and
usernames, such as the notion for being ‘responsible for any activity conducted
under you username’ (Broome, 2015). In class, your child has made a ‘bumper
sticker’ discouraging the sharing of passwords and change their own password
every term. How often do you change your password at home? A strong password consists of both letters (upper and
lowercase) and numbers.
It is also vital to discuss with your child the importance of not
sharing personal information about yourself or others online. If you would not
say it to a person on the street, do not put it online. Also, if your child has a social media site ensure that it is set to ‘private’ so no one apart from
themselves and their friends can see it.
It is also important for your child to understand that
anyone that they talk to online could, in fact, be anyone. People are able to
put all sorts of information online and it is important for children to learn
to identify what is real and what is not.
Identifying Threats and Inappropriate
Material
One of the main concerns resulting in ICT use is Cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying
is ‘the use of technology to harass,
threaten, embarrass, or target another person’ (Nemours, 2015). We have discussed in class the protocols for when a
student encounters cyber-bullying, or in fact any threat online. Students are
encouraged to screen shot (if possible) the threatening material and let an adult
know, such as their parents. If you discover your child is being cyber-bullied,
please notify the school. However, before you do so, please make your child
aware that you intend to tell the school and, more importantly, reassure and
comfort your child. Finally, it is important that you or your child do not
respond to the cyber-bully. For other measures and protocols, please visit this
website.
There is a lot of information on the Internet and some is not suitable for your child. Discourage your child from clicking on 'pop-ups' or other ads that may appear on their screens. Teach your child the idea that if it feels wrong, then it probably is and they should exit the site and tell an adult. Offensive and inappropriate material, such as cyber-bullying can be reported here.
Acknowledging Sources
In class, we are discouraging the ‘reference system’ of copying the URL
for an image found in Google and simply placing it underneath. This is not an
acknowledgement of the owner of the image, but merely showing where you took
the image from without permission. Creative Commons is ' an international non-profit organisation that provides free licenses and tools that copyright owners can use to allow others to share, reuse and remix their material, legally' (Creative Commons, 2015). Students can search for images through the Creative Commons Search to ensure that all images found already have permission from the owner to be used. Please encourage this at home when searching for images or other media.
These simple strategies are certainly beneficial to protecting your child online. Please view the resources in the links list for more cyber safety tips and ideas.
Sincerely,
Miss Hannah Dyson
P.S This is a fantastic children's video in regards to cyber safety which we watched as a class before beginning our cyber safety topic.
References
Austalian
Federal Police (2015) ‘Cyber Safety: Top Ten Tips for Youths’. Retrieved on 16
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